The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1887-01-08

chivalrous youth, who had been the COM
panion and devoted friend of her early
womanhood, and married, after n short,
uneventful courtship, the gentleman chosen
for her by :ier father.
/ None the less did she continue a.
4 women willie follow with interest the ca
reer of the man whom, if things had fallen
+ ont differently, she might have loved.
II was during that brilliant season in
London that she heard of Colonel Lyndon 5
return TO England. He had returned for
good and all. having few months before,
in obedience to his mothers wish. retired
from the army. No one knew what il cost
+ the gallant soldier to give up his probes
sion and 90 back into private life. He
+ loved the movement and hustle of camps;
I in the full command which had deyolYed
/ upon him not long before, he took the
keenest satisfaction and delight; he was
aware, too, rs turned out to be the case,
/ that civilian life st home, With no oecupa-
ton of an absorbing kind To keep il gong.
! would very soon pail upon him. As for
High Cliife-which, his brother having
died, was now hist might be a grand
place in his mothers eyes, but to him,
| accustomed as he was to the vast distances
and palatial splendors of the East, ii
seemed poor and small.
And yet he obeyed. His mother had lost
her elder sou, She wrote plaintively that
she had none other than him. He was Lyn-
don of High Clitfe now. He must come
home, marry, and take up his position in
| the county. 1t would break her heart to
think of the place, that had belonged for
so many generations TO the family, being
sold or passing into the hands of strangers.
On personal grounds, also, she besougnt
him 10 yield to her. She was old, she
10 h. l,r ..Rr L. 1.
heavy for her. She felt that the end of her
sorrows was nj hand. She would die more
happily If her son was near her.
She did not, indeed long survive his
coming. He travelled post-hasta to Lon
don, and went down into Devonshire,
where High Cliffe was situated, and for
the rest of his mothers life he remained
i there.
| 1t was when he had laid her in the grave,
when the early DAYS of mourning were
/ over. and he began to look forward to the
| life which was left to him, that Colonel
/ Lyndon first realized the full importance
! Of the sep he had taken III leaving the
army.
! He had few relatives and no near friends
| iii England. lie was accustomed TO have
many people about him; but of society, as
/ it is understood i'll London or his own
/ county, he knew nothing. The pursuits of
! his neighbors were not his pursuits. He
was expected to be au ceurant with all the
/ chit chat of the county, and he scarcely so
/ much as knew the names of his mother s
| and brothers Oldest friends.
! Then High ClItfe was so well managed
! that it gave him nothing to do. He had Il
I certain taleu- for organization, and If he
! had found things wrong on his estate, it
might have Interested him To set them
! right But The steward was so trustworthy
/ the provincial lawyers, who had looked af-
| tel the property for many years, were so
| able and devoted; the land, even to the gar
den which had been his mothers pride, was
III such admirable order, that he felt it
would be not only unwise but ungrateful to
| interfere with any Of the arrangements.
| After thanking every one and confirming
every one III the posts they had held under
his mother, the Colonel found his life so
insuferably dreary that he wandered up 70
London, where he had several friends.
1t vas then early in the brilliant season
which had been so exhausting to Lady
Flora Winstanleys finances. The Colonel
had not many friends, but those he did
possess We're persons OF good standing.
They introduced him to others. His SOL
dierly bearing and his fine chiyalrous man
ners made him a favorite, especially
he might have been at two or three
gay assemblages every night. London
life, however, palled upon him, as life
IN the country had done. The people We're
very kind and agreeable. He was grateful
to them for the notice they took of him,
which did indeed sometimes surprise
him n little. But in the midst Of
gay crowds he was solitary, he missed
his men; he missed the punctilious
order of his soldier-hfe; he missed the
young officers who had been his friends rs
well as his subordinates, and whom it had
been his pride, as he would have expressed
so at least he fondly imagined; and there
was some profit and satisfaction in his life.
Here-both in the depths Of the country
and IN the gay whirl of London life he felt
the same-no one really wanted him. To
have said that there was no satisfaction IN
his life would have been implous to the
religious sense of the old soldier. He
could not, as vet, feel that there was any
profit in it.
When he met Lady Flora Winstanley-it
was by what is generally called an accident
at the house of q mutual friend, the
Colonel, though few would have recog-
nized the fact, was beginning to fall n prey
to q settled melancholv. the unexpected
and most pleasant revival of an early
friendship cheered him not little. He
told Lady Flora some of his perplexities
and was advised by her to have patience
There is a nook i'll the world for every
one, said the wise lady. You will find
your nook in time"
BY way of helping him to find this nook
she introduced him to her son Percy. Give
him some good advice" she said. He is {
dear boy. but much too easily led.
The Colonel was sparing of his advice
but he made Lady Flora's son his friend
and was able, in the course of the sum
mer, 10 save that charming but some
what tlighty young soldier from t7mbling
into two or three dangerous pitfalls
Looking after Percy, in fact, became al
most an occupation to him.
Percy was leaving the attractive neigh
borhood of the metropolis, and the Colone
was wondering what he should do with
himself for the next few weeks, when
Lady Flora's invitation to CASTE EttricR
arrived.